Bunting in Big Games

Coach Hawkins at Highland, Illinois High School has a tremendous reputation for winning with the bunt. It doesn't matter how athletic his teams are, they beat better teams consistently because they put so much pressure on teams with the bunt. I know when we play them, we have to practice our various bunt defenses until all of our reactions are ingrained in every situation.

What in particular would you say makes him successful? Placement of bunts? Timing of? Direction?......

What I have sometimes seen is that coaches call for the bunt during the game. The bunt doesn't get laid down. Coach gets upset. Yet talk to the players and bunting is never practiced except for in BP when it is "lay down three and swing away".

Bunting fundamentals should be re-taught at the beginning. Some kids may have never been properly taught, others may need a refresher.

Then enough bunting practice should be performed before and throughout the season to develop and keep the players proficiency.

Keys to successful execution? Getting it down the first time and not bunting straight back to the pitcher. These two things will almost always result in a successful sac.

Every year you look at your team and see what you have. Who can do what when and where.
I remember years ago I had a situation that screamed bunt. the player at bat was my SS who was great defensively but his bunting skills were suspect. We put the bunt on he missed 2 bunts and proceeded to strike out. Now back then we did not have re entry DH and mercy rule(I have my opinion about that) it would have been a "no brainer" possibly put a kid in who could bunt and re enter my ss.

I look at professional baseball and the bunt is a lost art especially in the American League with the DH.

The bunt may well be a lost art, but it is still a situational move, and one must always consider the team and players he has to work with. If you don't have an offensive machine, but you have some speed and pitching, then the bunt should be practiced and executed when needed. IF your team can hit, then the bunt may be used less often in needed situations. I would never bunt for buntings sake, but a surprise in a close game can swing momentum.

Coach Labeots, I played in the same conference as Coach Hawkins and CoachB25. A lot of it was a matter of they could do it!! I cannot recall having beaten Highland in my high school career. Came close a few times and played some good games, but couldn't beat them. This included 2006 when we were Conference Champs. We went 8-2 with both losses coming to them.

Bunting is not a play that you decide to use just because you want to do it. There are situations in baseball where bunting is almost obligate. And there are situations where you surprise the other team with a bunt. But a coach labeled as a bunter will lost lot of games because will be predicted. He is going to exchange a bunt for an extra base hit or a 2 runs error several times. At HS baseball where most of teams have a questionable defense, and pitchers don't have good control, you don't need to invent too much, let the other team give you for free, the runs you need to win.

We look at the bunt as weapon for many occasions,e specially as much "wood" as we do---we do it to scratch out runs, for a hit and for a suprise factor


We have even had a 6-10 # 4 hitter bunt to move runners up---they were so shocked he almost beat it out as well

I have seen those same coaches get mad at the kids not being able to bunt when they haven't taught that. One of my pet peeves is a coach yelling about something they haven't taught. I see that all of the time, like the players are just supposed to know it!!??

I agree that practicing bunting should mean practicing bunting and I run that as a whole round or bunting station.

In the past, it has been more difficult to convince the parents of the importance of bunting than it has been to convince the players.

Even though this thread is a little stale here is a great article on the value of the bunt.

http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2006/07/empirical_analy_1.php

In summary it proves that statisitically bunting is not a good idea. In cases where a single run is important it is a good strategy. This is at the MLB level of play and so the value go's up as the level of play go's down.

BOF,

Thanks for starting this up again. This other day, our computers went down and we were taking a test. I couldn't begin my next lesson and so, one of the kids asked if I had any video of any of the teams I'd coached in the past. I told them that I not only had video in the class but had 2 state championship games. They wanted to see the end of the State Championship game in 1990. Extra innings, top of the 9th tied 1-1. First batter walks and steals second. Second batter bunts but defense caught asleep and so safe at first then steals second. Next batter squares to bunt and a ball. So, coach opts to walk hitter. Bases loaded no outs. Next batter fake squeeze = ball one. Fake squeeze = ball two. Fake squeeze = ball 3. Strike one. Bases loaded squeeze. All safe. Next batter well, you get the point. We were ahead 4-1 by the end of that inning. We won the state title 4-1. I like the bunt.

There are many different philosophies on bunts. And I do not claim to have all the answers, but I do believe in my philosophy. Being a math and statistics teacher, I agree with BOF that statistically, bunting does not make sense. In many cases you lose run expectancy in an inning when you give up an out for a base.

At the major league level, when a sacrifice is laid down, third basemen and pitchers field the bunt well enough that it is usually just that, a sacrifice (don't tell the Tigers that).

At the high school level, teams do not field the bunt as well and many times a good bunt turns into an adventure. That is why I feel that at the high school level, bunts make sense in the right situation. We use the bunt to put pressure on the defense and try to get extra bases, not as a sacrifice method. We see advancing the runners and losing an out as a push. A victory bunting with us is either an error by the defense (this is our ultimate goal) where we are able to advance multiple bases or the batter beating out the bunt.

If I were down a touchdown in a football game with 90 seconds left, I wouldn't give up 30 seconds for a first down. I feel the same way in baseball, you only get 21 outs, I don't want to give any of them away.

Bunting (or at least the appearance of the bunt) can determine a game even with 2 outs.

We had a game decided in the 7th inning with two outs, two strikes with us down a run. Two pitches later, we had won it. Two straight steals of home. I'll go look for the thread I made last spring. It was an interesting finish and I was scared to death after the first pitch!

http://hsbaseballweb.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6616002781/...521098122#8521098122

quote:

I feel the same way in baseball, you only get 21 outs, I don't want to give any of them away.

I agree with this, however, the 21 outs are going to happen so why not make them productive outs. Obviously 7 of them are going to end the innings, so you might as well make good use of the other 14.

I coach both a Sr American Legion team and an 11 year old travel team....no days off in the summer! We bunt some on the legion team (and do practice it). But, on the youth team, we started bunting at 9 and not to move runners. We are a small in stature team. So, we bunt to create chaos. Our philosophy is throw strikes, play defense and score runs however the opposition lets us. Teaching boys to bunt at this age prevents them from getting "yelled at" when they get older. Our guys can lay it down wherever we ask them to (first or third) because bunting is a part of our practice plan. It's baseball and that's what we are supposed to teach them. As our 9 year old season progressed, teams began to try to shut our small ball game down. we saw all kinds of crazy defenses, but none really worked well. At 10 (this past year), we began to hit the ball with more authority (especially the middle of the order), but we still used the bunt to create chaos. We also began to slash, which kept teams honest, not allowing them to play thier 3b halfway to home. Even though we win (alot), we actually lost a few kids because their parents didn't agree with our approach...I guess they really didn't understand the game in general (they didn't understand why we did not do on-field BP for at least an hour every practice...go figure!) It's funny...because now many of the local teams that have watched us play have begun to play more small ball...we saw it this fall. In summary, I do not believe in giving up outs, but I do believe in taking what a team will give you and if they can't play the bunt then use it to your advantage.